Jean Shrimpton changed everything. Before her, "the look" for models was 1940s elegance and then she came along, like a wonderful young faun.

I was the first working-class model. Before me, it was only middle- and upper-class families that could afford to send their daughters to modelling school.

My life was turned upside down at the age of 16. The journalist Deirdre McSharry called me the "Face of 1966" in the Daily Express on 27 February and that was the day my life changed for ever.

I didn't understand the fuss over me. I was being whisked around the world, put in beautiful clothes, told I was gorgeous and earning lots of money. I just remember thinking: "God, they're all mad!" I hated being skinny and funny looking and desperately wanted a bosom.

Everyone calls me Twiggy. One of my early boyfriend's brothers nicknamed me Twiggy because of my skinny legs and it stuck. It's only my sisters who call me Lesley.

The best way to quit smoking is to take up knitting. You can't do both at the same time. I'd never start again. At my age, that would be insanity.

My first husband died of a heart attack and while that was difficult and sad, I went on to marry again and lead an incredibly happy life. You just have to get on with things. We're only here once and I like to be a positive person.

I adored my dad. He was from the north and was very sensible and loving and instilled a groundedness in me.

Organised religion is not for me. Most wars over the centuries have been about religion. I think fate plays a big role in our lives and that if we were nicer to one another the world would be a better place.

Having more children would have been wonderful. But it just didn't happen for us.I trust that the right things have happened in my life. I have a daughter and a stepson who mean more to me than anything in the world.

You can surprise yourself. I never thought I'd find the courage to do a show on Broadway in front of 1,500 people; or star in a film that I'd win two Golden Globes for, but somehow I did. Not too bad for a girl from Neasden.

Ken Russell was my mentor. Working with him [Russell cast Twiggy in his 1971 film The Boy Friend] was like walking into the Secret Garden. He showed me a world that I had no idea existed.

I've been dumped for a scooter. I was a mod in my early teens and I went on a date to the pictures with a mod boy, who I liked very much. He rang me up the week after and said: "I can't afford to have both a girlfriend and a scooter. And I'm keeping the scooter." I can laugh now, but I was devastated at the time.